Last Straw » Personal

Last Straw’s new design and a note to email subscribers

Christiaan — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:33:36 +0000

As some of you may have noticed I've been having a bit of a tidy up around here recently. Last Straw now has a classy new grid-based design called Basic Maths by Khoi Vinh. I've also blown a few cobwebs out of the backend involving categories and whatnot. All of which should make browsing my rants endless pearls of wisdom infinitely more pleasurable. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for a new photo/video gallery too.

As email subscribers will have already noticed I've also overhauled the mailing list system, switching to MailChimp. Note that this will now come as a weekly digest instead of individual emails.

While switching I was reminded of how many friends and family I've surreptitiously subscribed over the years. Not the most polite thing to do. Honestly, unless you really want to receive these emails, please unsubscribe. There are other more modern ways to follow a blog these days anyway.

In the mean time you might like to check out another website overhaul I've been working on recently.

Email bankruptcy

Christiaan — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 19:38:03 +0000

I recently cleared my email inbox at work and put measures in place to keep it that way. It took a couple of solid days hard graft to make sure things were properly filed or otherwise taken care of. Now I’m giving my personal email the same treatment. The problem here is that I’m dealing not with…

Farewell Gordon

Christiaan — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 20:35:26 +0000

No parent should have to see their child die, but if you were my son, Gordon, I would be immensely proud that you lived every minute of your allotted time to its utmost. A gentleman and a scholar, farewell brother.

Revoking Baptism and Confirmation

Christiaan — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 01:32:08 +0000

I spent my early teenage years attending a catholic high school where debate about the more dubious aspects of organised religion was relatively open, so I've generally had an attitude of live and let live; as long as people don't attempt to impose their fairy tales on me I won't get on their backs about how silly they're being.

Back in London

Christiaan — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 21:57:59 +0000

So much for having wads of time to blog, Iâ€™m back in London now. Taking a holiday in NZ doesn’t involve a whole lot of time indoors. Fortunately I managed to do some things Iâ€™ve wanted to do since I was a teen: walked around Lake Waikaremoana with my father and brother, sailed through Milford…

Going coming home

Christiaan — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 23:46:56 +0000

I'm going home to NZ for a couple of months. Know of anyone who needs a room in London?

Belated introduction

Christiaan — Sun, 05 Jun 2005 20:01:29 +0000

So I've been spamming you all for a few months now, I thought it was about time I rolled out an introduction.

Politicised

Christiaan — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 15:41:14 +0000

To keep the wheels rolling while I attempt to balance work and other commitments with this blog I've decided to start posting some writing I did back when I became politicised in the early days, which got me wondering how I did become politicised...

Letter to Prime Minister Helen Clark

Christiaan — Thu, 06 Mar 2003 17:16:19 +0000

Dear Prime Minister, Hundreds of Human Shield volunteers from over 30 countries are converging in Baghdad. This week we started deploying to strategic sites that are key to avoiding mass civilian casualties in the event of a U.S. lead bombing campaign. I am writing to inform you and the New Zealand Government that I have voluntarily stationed myself at the Daura Electricity Plant in central Baghdad.

Why I’m off to Iraq

Christiaan — Wed, 01 Jan 2003 11:00:31 +0000

I read a book recently that changed my life. The door opened just wide enough for me to get a foot in and go on to learn the most important lesson of my life. This is a little story of the lead-up to that lesson and the point beyond: becoming part of the Truth Justice Peace Human Shield Action Iraq.